25. 
Once she was dear, now she was all I had
To love in human life—­this playmate sweet,
This child of twelve years old—­so she was made 885
My sole associate, and her willing feet
Wandered with mine where earth and ocean meet,
Beyond the aereal mountains whose vast cells
The unreposing billows ever beat,
Through forests wild and old, and lawny dells 890
Where boughs of incense droop over the emerald wells.

26. 
And warm and light I felt her clasping hand
When twined in mine; she followed where I went,
Through the lone paths of our immortal land. 
It had no waste but some memorial lent 895
Which strung me to my toil—­some monument
Vital with mind; then Cythna by my side,
Until the bright and beaming day were spent,
Would rest, with looks entreating to abide,
Too earnest and too sweet ever to be denied. 900

27. 
And soon I could not have refused her—­thus
For ever, day and night, we two were ne’er
Parted, but when brief sleep divided us: 
And when the pauses of the lulling air
Of noon beside the sea had made a lair 905
For her soothed senses, in my arms she slept,
And I kept watch over her slumbers there,
While, as the shifting visions over her swept,
Amid her innocent rest by turns she smiled and wept.

28. 
And, in the murmur of her dreams was heard 910
Sometimes the name of Laon:—­suddenly
She would arise, and, like the secret bird
Whom sunset wakens, fill the shore and sky
With her sweet accents, a wild melody! 
Hymns which my soul had woven to Freedom, strong 915
The source of passion, whence they rose, to be;
Triumphant strains, which, like a spirit’s tongue,
To the enchanted waves that child of glory sung—­

29. 
Her white arms lifted through the shadowy stream
Of her loose hair.  Oh, excellently great 920
Seemed to me then my purpose, the vast theme
Of those impassioned songs, when Cythna sate
Amid the calm which rapture doth create
After its tumult, her heart vibrating,
Her spirit o’er the Ocean’s floating state 925
From her deep eyes far wandering, on the wing
Of visions that were mine, beyond its utmost spring!

30. 
For, before Cythna loved it, had my song
Peopled with thoughts the boundless universe,
A mighty congregation, which were strong 930
Where’er they trod the darkness to disperse
The cloud of that unutterable curse
Which clings upon mankind:—­all things became
Slaves to my holy and heroic verse,
Earth, sea and sky, the planets, life and fame 935
And fate, or whate’er else binds the world’s wondrous frame.